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Until then, assuming the survey is as robust as it seems on first glance, we should accept the findings as accurate

Damn maybe law enforcement should start using questionnaires to fight crime ??

Have you ever killed someone? YES/NOAre you a terrorist? YES/NODo you sometimes DUI ? YES/NO

Problem of crime solved

Having discussion with you is like having one with a woman minus chance to stare at boobs

Well they actually do that, flown to the US recently?

In some cases, government surveys may ask questions where an answer would indicate you've broken the law. Since the Statistics department here is not under the control of other departments, people can answer honestly to questions which may show they are committing tax fraud, getting benefits when they shouldn't be, etc. Under law, the information they provide can't be used outside of statistical purposes.

But seriously, do you not understand how statistics are conducted? Your issues with the survey aren't only pertinent to this specific survey, they are applicable to all surveys. It's also relevant to every scientific experiment that uses a sample population to estimate population parameters (which, is a huge portion of scientific experiments).

I addressed this before but you seemed to ignore it as well: surveys are designed to minimise bias. I'm not aware of surveys that gauge murder rate or terrorism by questionnaire (not a very intuitive way to measure such a thing) but for most questions you can minimise non-response error to a point where it shouldn't be an issue. Not every female is going to feel comfortable answering the questions and they may lie, but the number of females who do this should be small enough so as not to affect the results significantly. The whole point of the way the survey is conducted is to make it so that people are comfortable telling the truth.

Again, I can't stress this enough, if you reject this survey based on that argument you should be rejecting a lot of other surveys and experiments.

FYI: I'm working on a government survey at the moment, you'd be surprised how truthful people are for certain questions we ask. People really do want to help by providing accurate information. Some questions are very personal, questions that you would think people would refuse to answer, yet we get honest responses most of the time. You can't say for sure whether an answer is honest or not but after doing it awhile you do pick up on small things.

This survey is over the phone too, the one I linked about sexual partners was not so it should be even more robust.

Yeah that is a problem with many surveys (such as the aforementioned Durex one). Using "survey" to describe a Government survey doesn't really do it justice; it's not like a typical survey you'd find in the post, on a news website, or on the phone. The budget for these surveys is huge, the team who works on the survey would probably number over a hundred. I had two weeks of training specifically for this survey. If there is an agenda that biases results, all of this hard work and money is wasted.

So for government surveys, your point is never really an issue as their only agenda is gathering accurate information. I think the survey I'm working on has been in planning for the last two years or so and its conducted every five years. I'd hate to know how long it took them to word some of the questions.

C. It seemed so obvious I had to get a ruler to check there wasn't some sort of trick.

Anyway, I googled the Asch experiment. What does it have to do with this survey? You obviously have not bothered to read a word from the published survey if you think this is relevant to it.

Why not respond to my arguments in the previous post? You seem to think that the National Center for Health Statistics survey is equivalent to an online poll or some dude walking around a mall with a clipboard

It is relevant. Questionnaires might be somewhat ok for some stuff but not for all. The issue we discuss here is exactly the kind of thing where they make no sense at all.

Now if you still have doubts... let's say I am conduction a survey on penis size - would you be so kind as to take part in it ??
Just write the lenght and then post a pic of your stuff next to a ruler.

Now if you still have doubts... let's say I am conduction a survey on penis size - would you be so kind as to take part in it ?? Just write the lenght and then post a pic of your stuff next to a ruler.

BAHAHAHAHHAHAA

I've kept my mouth shut for this discussion thus far but I've been dying of laughter at you guys arguing for no reason.

POLAND_SPUD wrote:It is relevant. Questionnaires might be somewhat ok for some stuff but not for all. The issue we discuss here is exactly the kind of thing where they make no sense at all.

Now if you still have doubts... let's say I am conduction a survey on penis size - would you be so kind as to take part in it ??Just write the lenght and then post a pic of your stuff next to a ruler.

How do you think they find information like this out? It is not ethical to have some guy with clipboard tail each participant and count how many times they f*ck someone new! How can you be so ignorant about this? Where do you think information like this comes from?

I've argued the point, about three times, as to why statistical surveys like this can be robust and yet you keep making the same dumb statement. Either have a reply for why my arguments responding to your statement are not valid or stop making the same dumb statement.

Your second argument is as ridiculous and tedious as the first. It's a clear strawman argument and I'm certain you know that yourself. For your sake, I'll assume you were intoxicated when you wrote that.

tl;dr: either find something statistically wrong with the survey (e.g. flawed methods) or stop making the same point.

Your second argument is as ridiculous and tedious as the first. It's a clear strawman argument and I'm certain you know that yourself. For your sake, I'll assume you were intoxicated when you wrote that.

nope not drunk just very clever

Don't worry if you're lacking in length you can make up for it - women love men who are into feminism

Not to reignite the gender debate but I find this sort of "he must not have a girlfriend" attitude to male achievements to be unhelpful, it's typicalefemale shaming language.

It's true that there are a lot of geeks out there who crave sexual relations which are beyond their reach, but on the other hand there are just as many men who have found women wanting in terms of fulfillment and prefer to be more constructive with their time